On the Ledge
by youdontknowme15
Summary: Based of off 1x06, Attention Shoppers. It isn't really about the main characters that much, it is more about Tasha. Starts out boring but it will get better. Please review and tell me if I have not posted this correctly
1. Chapter 1 Home

"Mom, I have to go to work."

Tasha stood over her mom's bed, waiting for her to say something.

"What time is it?" her mom finally asked, squinting.

"It's almost five. I don't want to be late," Tasha said, even though she knew that Jackie would not be angry at her for arriving a few minutes late. She reached out to open the blinds, to let some light in, but her mom squinted again, because the light made her throbbing headache a hundred times worse. Tasha closed them.

"Well, dinner's in the microwave," she said. "You just have to take the tin foil off-"

"I know how to do it," her mom snapped.

Tasha found herself having to do everything for her mother. Cooking and cleaning, while keeping up with her own school work, and her job. Most people might have looked at her and wondered how she did it all, but to her it was second nature. It was what she had to do to survive. She wished her mother could be the same. She wished her mother could get on with her life too. Maybe they could be a real family again. She wanted to offer some words of encouragement, in hopes that it would convince her mother to get up.

"I know it can be hard sometimes... but if you get up you're going to feel better okay?" Tasha pleaded.  
"I know you can do this."

Her mother shook her head.

"Not right now."

It was silent after that. Tasha stood there for a moment, waiting for something, but she wasn't sure what--I love you? See you soon? But her mother didn't say anything, as if she didn't even realize Tasha was still there.


	2. Chapter 2 The Mall

At the shop, Jackie asked Tasha what was wrong. She even offered to close shop up.

"Ever since two weeks ago..." Jackie started to say. _Don't go there_, Tasha thought. _I don't want to talk about it._

"Mom's a nightmare and school's worse. Same as always," Tasha said bluntly, even though there were a million words to describe what was going on. She just didn't want to talk about it. She desperately wanted to tell Jackie about her mom, who wasn't even able to function. Or Bri, who was never going to let her have a moment of peace. Or all the kids at school, the rumors they told and the awful things they wrote about Tasha on the bathroom walls. How there was no way to escape. If she could, she would run away. But instead, she asked Jackie if she could have her break, and she headed for the bathroom.

Jackie was concerned. She knew Tasha had always had things tough. The neighborhood she was living in wasn't the best. Robbery, crime, and gang activity were regular occurrences. Jackie also knew that Tasha's mom wasn't her normal self. Things had always been hard for Tasha but lately she hadn't even been talking. She noticed Tasha looking behind her nervously everywhere she went, as though she were scared that someone was going to come. But who?

Jackie had gotten to know Tasha one day when Tasha was at the mall looking for a job. She was in need of money for college and Jackie was in need of help at her small store. Over time she had found Tasha was a smart girl with high hopes, even though she lived in a bad neighborhood. Her favorite subjects were English and chemistry, and she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up. She was shy and did not like to draw attention to herself. Instead, she studied and worked hard. But lately it seemed like she was slipping away. What happened?


	3. Chapter 3 The Fight

_"Spreading her germs everywhere, just like her lies..."_

Bri shoved her against the wall, hard.

"There's no way Michael would do that..."

They pushed her back and forth, and then Bri punched her. Her lip began bleeding. Cassaundra dragged her across the floor. Bri took out scissors and cut her long hair. She screamed for them to stop, she screamed for help. But nobody was listening. She couldn't hear anything they were saying, because she was screaming and crying and praying that someone would come help her. Bri told Cassaundra to watch the door, and Tasha knew no one would come to save her.

Bri put her foot on top of Tasha as though she had just won a battle in the boxing ring. Her friend pulled out a gun and dangled it in front of Tasha's face. Bri looked down at Tasha with contempt.

"We'll do much worse if you ever lie to the cops again."

_I didn't lie!_ Tasha wanted to scream, but she knew that no matter how much she tried to convince Bri that her boyfriend had done the horrible thing that he had, she would deny it. Being part of the Crew meant defending her boyfriend no matter what.

Bri pulled out a gun too, and Tasha thought for sure it was the end. But then she felt someone's hand roughly pull her off the floor. Bri's friend dropped the gun and it slid across the floor. Instinctively, Tasha grabbed it, not even knowing what she would do with it.

Filled with fear, she held it but didn't know what she was aiming at. The gun felt heavy in her hands. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.


	4. Chapter 4 The Chase

"That's it. We're going to end this now. We're going to kill her." Bri stormed through the mall, barely containing her anger.  
Erin began to object. _Maybe it's not too late to back out, _she thought. She couldn't believe they had left Cassaundra there in the bathroom, to die. She contemplated giving herself up to the police when suddenly Bri grabbed her arm tightly.  
"If the Crew finds out we didn't do something about this, we're the ones they're going to blame."  
_She's right, _Erin realized. If the Crew found out they had let Tasha get away with murdering a member... she didn't even want to think about it. She dropped the argument with Bri.  
She thought back to the moments just before. Bri kicked and punched and her and then Erin held her down while Bri cut her long blond hair. There was hair surrounding her on the floor and she was bleeding. Bri pulled a gun out of her bag and announced that maybe, they should just kill her now. But the next thing she knew, Tasha was the one with the gun. She had closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. A bullet grazed Erin's arm, and Cassaundra fell. In a flash, Tasha was running from the bathroom with the gun in her hand. For now, she had won the battle.  
-----

Tasha ran through the mall, out of breath, her heart pounding. She saw the police everywhere. With every step she took, she glanced behind her. She knew that every police officer was looking for her and that the three girls were looking for her too. The only difference was that the police wouldn't kill her when they found her. They would only lock her up for a long time, she was sure.  
Her heart stopped when she looked in front of her and saw the three girls standing there. And she ran faster than she ever had before.  
----

Erin saw her stand there, frozen for a second, like a deer caught in headlights. Bri, surprisingly calm, held out her gun and aimed directly at Tasha. She pulled the trigger, but Tasha moved out of the way in time, and instead it hit a display. Bri shot several more times, each time missing her target. Tasha was too fast. Erin couldn't help thinking that what Bri was doing was completely crazy. Glittering shards of glass were scattered on the floor, definitely thousands of dollars of damages. All around her there was screaming and yelling, and then they looked up and saw the police. They each ran in different directions, and Erin found herself running alone down one of the hallways. And then she looked back and saw a police officer right behind her. He tackled her to the ground, and she knew she had been caught. Bri had abandoned her.  
----

She pulled her hood down from her face and tears streamed down her cheeks as she saw the girl in the mirror. She was bloody and bruised, and her hair was matted and cut at random lengths._ I look like a freak, _she thought. It seemed like things were getting worse and worse. She had killed a girl and now she would go to jail. As much as she hated those girls, she didn't mean to kill any of them them. She would be arrested, put in jail, a criminal. She killed someone. Her life was completely ruined. She didn't have anyone to help her, especially not her mother. She didn't have any friends or family to call and ask for help. She remembered the gun in her jacket and decided that it was the only option she had left. But first she needed to make a phone call.  
She dialed her mother's phone number, but there was no answer. She dialed Jackie's number.  
"Tasha? Is that you?" Jackie's voice on the other end sounded concerned.  
"There's police out here-"  
"Jackie... I'm sorry... I killed a girl..." Tasha choked on the words.  
"Tasha where are you-"  
"I just wanted to say.. I'm sorry..." she sobbed.  
"Tasha, where are you?" Jackie demanded in a firm tone.  
"Thank you for being nice to me..."  
"I can help you," Jackie insisted. "I'll come get you."  
"Bye, Jackie." Tasha hung up. She didn't want Jackie to get involved in this. She gazed at the gun and slowly brought it to her head, trying to work up the courage to pull the trigger.  
She thought about all the tough things she had made it through. All the times her mother had been too drunk to help her. Even when she was six years old, she would come everyday from first grade and make herself dinner on the days when her mother had a hangover and couldn't face the light. All the bullies she had to battle, the rumors, the lies.. somehow despite all of it she had her clean room, her almost-perfect grades, her high hopes for the future. Somehow she survived. She survived all the paperwork and questioning when she reported Michael to the police. She survived the daily tormenting and the graffiti on her house and the threats. She survived being kicked and punched by the girls who wanted to kill her.  
"Police! Is there anyone here?" Tasha snapped back to reality as she heard a voice call through the silence.  
_I'm still here, _she thought. She knew where she needed to go. They would never find her. Maybe there was still a chance for her.  
----

"What happened?" The officer questioned her. He said his name was Greg Parker, and he was from the Strategic Response Unit. Erin didn't even think about her answer. The one thing she had mastered over the years was lying. Before she knew it, she was spinning a story about Tasha coming into the bathroom and pulling a gun on them, almost shooting her in the arm. She thought her story was ironic, considering she could never even picture Tasha even holding a gun. At least, until today.  
Then Greg asked to see her arm and she knew she was in trouble. Her lie hadn't worked, and he had seen right through it. When he pulled down her sleeve he saw the numbers tattooed on her arm, plain as day, announcing that she was the guilty party.  
He pulled her over to a board with dozens of picture tacked on to it.  
"Erin, why don't you show me your friend?"  
Erin looked at the pictures. There was no way she would sell out her Crew. They would definitely kill her for that. But, somehow, her eyes were what sold them out. Immediately Greg took down the picture of Brianna.  
"Erin, why don't you tell me what happened after you gave her the haircut?_"  
_As she thought about what had happened, Erin felt overwhelmed with guilt for a brief second.  
----

Tasha thought that nobody would find her, but the next thing she knew she heard someone yelling her name. "Tasha!"  
Tasha glanced behind her and saw a police officer running up the steps.  
"Go away!" she yelled.  
But the officer was persistent. She wouldn't let Tasha get away, not because she wanted her to get in trouble, but because she didn't want a 17-year-old girl to jump off the ledge. Not after all that Tasha had made it through.  
----

Erin was silent. She glanced around the room. It was filled with computers and equipment. It seemed strange. All of this just for a couple of teenage girls in a disagreement. But she was reminded why this was serious when Greg spoke.  
"You do realize your friend could have killed innocent people out there?"  
Erin knew that Greg was right. The mall was filled with tons of people, fathers, mothers, kids, teenagers. The way Bri had just started shooting, she could have easily shot one of them by mistake.  
"Yeah, it was kind of stupid." Erin admitted.  
"But Bri doesn't let go of grudges. She can't."  
"Why not?" Greg asked.  
"Because she'll lose her rank. She's a leader in the Crew. If she doesn't get rid of Tasha, she's in trouble." she said.  
"Why Tasha?" Greg asked, even though he knew the answer. He wanted Erin to feel guilty for helping her friends beat up an innocent girl. "Is Tasha in some rival gang?"  
"No way."  
"Does she owe your friend money or something?"  
"No."  
"Then why doesn't Bri like her?"  
"Because she told the truth."  
----

"Tasha, stop!" the officer yelled again.  
"Get away from me!" Tasha yelled back. She finally made it to the ledge. She thought maybe the officer wouldn't come near her if she climbed over the rail. As she stood there, she looked down and saw all of the cars passing by. It made her dizzy. Her plan was to jump but she couldn't work up the courage. She didn't look behind her but she could two officers talking.  
"She's out on the ledge." the one who had been chasing said into the radio.  
"No visible weapon.." said the other one.  
It was silent for a moment, and all Tasha could hear was the cars and people down below.  
"Tasha? My name is Jules. I'm here to help." The officer said a calm voice.  
Part of Tasha wanted to believe Jules. She would turn herself in and accept whatever punishment she got for killing Cassaundra.  
But part of her didn't want to live anymore. It seemed like her life was one thing after another, and she had no one to help her through the tough times. There was Jackie, but Jackie was her employer, and could only do so much. Tasha wanted a mom, and friends, and she didn't want to have to deal with these though things in her life. Her mom's drinking problem, the rape charges that she had put on Michael, the Crew who was intent on making her life miserable. Everyday when she woke up she surveyed the graffiti on her house, she took whatever route to school that she could to avoid the girls, and at school she kept her head down and could not look anyone in the eye, because it seemed like there were very few good people left in the world. She tried hard to control her life, but it seemed like the only thing she had in control was her room and her school grades. Everything else was spinning out on control, and there was only one way to make it stop.  
----

"Do you believe that she was telling the truth?" Greg asked.  
"Yeah..." Erin answered.  
"I mean, Michael isn't a good person..."  
"What about Tasha?" Greg asked.  
"Is Tasha a good person?"  
For the first time, Erin felt tears stinging her eyes as she realized that Tasha was a better person than anyone else she had met. She had seen Tasha in school, helping other people in math class or staying after to help a teacher clean up the classroom in chemistry. In fact, Erin was in most of Tasha's classes. They didn't really talk at all, and they were on completely different levels. Erin was the slacker who never turned in her homework, fought with the teachers, and had failing grades, and Tasha was the star student, but she didn't brag about it. She tried to help other people.  
"She didn't mean to shoot Cassaundra," Erin said.  
"She was scared."  
----

_Jump! _she told herself, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was sobbing and out of breath.  
"Tasha, you don't have to talk to me, but I'd really like it if you would." Jules said to her. Tasha remained silent, trying to ignore the officer, but she couldn't. She wanted to jump.  
"Thanks for not jumping. Are you thinking you might?" Jules asked.  
Tasha nodded, unable to find the words the explain why.  
"You know I've never seen someone whose ready to die put up such an awesome fight to stay alive," Jules told her.  
"Can you tell me what happened today? With those girls?"  
"Why don't you ask them?" Tasha asked. She heard a clanking noise as Jules clipped something to the metal bar. She realized the officer was not going to let her do what she was planning to do.  
"They gave you quite a haircut today, didn't they?" Jules climbed over the bar and stood next to Tasha.  
Tasha remembered the terror she felt as Bri had held her down and punched her. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks. "I thought... they were going to kill me." She took a deep shaky breath. "They think I lied to the cops about Brianna's boyfriend... what he did to me..."  
"But you didn't, did you?" Jules asked her, even though she already knew the answer.  
Tasha shook her head.  
"It doesn't matter..." she said. Because, now, it seemed like it didn't.  
"It does matter!" Jules exclaimed. "You told the truth. You stood up to that guy. You fought back!"  
Tasha looked into Jule's eyes and knew she meant what she was saying. But then she was reminded of the horrible thing that _she _had done.  
"I killed a girl today..."  
"No you didn't. She's in surgery. She's going to be okay," Jules insisted. "Tasha, take my hand."  
"I can't..." Tasha sobbed, overwhelmed with emotion--anger, grief, guilt, and confusion. "I'm already dead anyway..."  
"No you're not." Jules told her. "I know it feels like that, but you're not. If you can get through this, you can get through anything."  
At that moment Tasha realized that she didn't want to jump. She had been thinking that things could only get worse, but for a second it seemed like things were getting better. She took Jules' hand.

--------------------------

Sorry if this chapter was long, boring, or kind of confusing because I kept switching between characters. Also sorry about the big spaces between scenes. but don't worry, more chapters are coming soon!


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